White Perch Advice?

[M_Duong60]

I have been having a hard time of catching fish for the freezer whenever I head out lately and decided to target white perch for my next outing. It has been years since I targeted white perch and have no idea where to start, the main problem being a place to launch/target these fish. I was hoping that it would be possible to perhaps get some pointers on good locations/areas to target fish and if they are biting, any information would be a great help. Lure wise I plan on using what I already have which is a small spinnerbait and some curlytail grubs, I hope that these will be fine. Thanks in advance, any information would help out a lot!

[brianisoutside]

Try fishing around piers, jetties or oyster bars.


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[ronaultmtd]

Really early in the perch season..June they will be every where- you can catch them any and every where- right now double bottom rigs with $$ bloodworms is the ticket around structure, docks, and rip rap...

[yakscientist]

Don't know where you usually fish, but some of my best perch outings were around Jonas Green on the Severn. If you can, stop by anglers and get a bag of razor clams if they have any. They're only like $5 and are one of the best bottom fishing baits IMO. Then as others have suggested, double bottom rigs, or even just small j or circle hooks beneath a bobber with a small weight would work. I like to target the docks along the opposite shore from Jonas, mostly the ones right before Weems Creek. I caught about a dozen in the upper severn on Sunday, so I'm sure they're in the lower Severn as well. I was fishing around some rocky shoreline, so you could target a place like that as well. And I was just using nightcrawlers, they're another cheap bait that you can get anywhere pretty much. They'll also hit spinners, small gulp curltail minnows, and the other baits that have been mentioned. Small paddletails, 1/8 or 1/4oz jigheads, the same setup for small-medium rockfish will work too, just trolling very slow close to the bottom or casting. I caught my biggest perch last year just leaving the paddletails sit idle on the bottom while I fished a different rod.

[mchottie]

Blood worms on a double drop rig.

Caught about 3 dozen last weekend in the Magothy, 12 or so were keeper size 10" and up. Made for fantastic cilantro ranch jalapeno fish tacos. I was also very surprised for the success this early in the season.

[M_Duong60]

Blood worms on a double drop rig.

Caught about 3 dozen last weekend in the Magothy, 12 or so were keeper size 10" and up. Made for fantastic cilantro ranch jalapeno fish tacos. I was also very surprised for the success this early in the season.

Oh wow that sounds delicious, definitely going to try that when I get my hands on some, maybe Ill try that area for early season!

[M_Duong60]

Don't know where you usually fish, but some of my best perch outings were around Jonas Green on the Severn. If you can, stop by anglers and get a bag of razor clams if they have any. They're only like $5 and are one of the best bottom fishing baits IMO. Then as others have suggested, double bottom rigs, or even just small j or circle hooks beneath a bobber with a small weight would work. I like to target the docks along the opposite shore from Jonas, mostly the ones right before Weems Creek. I caught about a dozen in the upper severn on Sunday, so I'm sure they're in the lower Severn as well. I was fishing around some rocky shoreline, so you could target a place like that as well. And I was just using nightcrawlers, they're another cheap bait that you can get anywhere pretty much. They'll also hit spinners, small gulp curltail minnows, and the other baits that have been mentioned. Small paddletails, 1/8 or 1/4oz jigheads, the same setup for small-medium rockfish will work too, just trolling very slow close to the bottom or casting. I caught my biggest perch last year just leaving the paddletails sit idle on the bottom while I fished a different rod.

In the past probably a couple years ago I fished for WP around point lookout but now I don't really know where to launch. Thanks for the detailed info and I really like the idea of Jonas Green, I forgot about that area and have always wanted to try it out in the past. Ill be sure to keep this in mind when I head out next time!

[M_Duong60]

Really early in the perch season..June they will be every where- you can catch them any and every where- right now double bottom rigs with $$ bloodworms is the ticket around structure, docks, and rip rap...

Oh I had no idea it was early in the perch season, I had heard of reports in DE so I just assumed. Maybe Ill hold off until June and just go full force then, thanks a lot for this info I had no idea. I wouldn't have considered a top and bottom for perch and would have probably just went out with lures and maybe minnows under a bobber.

[D3NAL1]

ive been crushing perch, but have had to take several drives to find them. they are still some upstream, but not big. probably in the 9 inch range. i went out to a big river yesterday and found some nice ones. only brought a dozen home for dinner. hitting paddletails, with 4/0 hooks. all depends where you fish and water clarity, i did not find them near piers. they were in dropoffs from 4 to 8 ft of water. caught endless amounts of striped bass that will be legal next week.
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[M_Duong60]

ive been crushing perch, but have had to take several drives to find them. they are still some upstream, but not big. probably in the 9 inch range. i went out to a big river yesterday and found some nice ones. only brought a dozen home for dinner. hitting paddletails, with 4/0 hooks. all depends where you fish and water clarity, i did not find them near piers. they were in dropoffs from 4 to 8 ft of water. caught endless amounts of striped bass that will be legal next week.
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Wow thanks for the report and great job! I wish the weather wasn't going to be bad this weekend because I'm itching to get out. I haven't had perch on my plate for a while.

[bignose]

You've gotten some great advice.
Now for my 2 cents:

If I am fishing for fun, I stick with my home made spinner jigs and 3" curly tail grubs on 1/8 oz. jig heads. Chartreuse green is almost always the best color. I'll fish in the creeks and dock structure, very occasionally the Severn, if the weather is nice, and usually during the week to avoid traffic (I am fishing from a canoe, not a kayak). I have also fished in Baltimore Harbor for these, which is interesting, but I probably wouldn't take these home for dinner.

When we want to fill the cooler on the charter boat with perch we will use cut soft crab on a double snelled bottom rig. Worms may work as well, I don't know if bloodworms make that much difference.
We hit the Bay Bridge pilings, and when the weather gets snotty, we fish the Severn upstream from and across from Jonas Green, where the old railroad tracks and submerged old pilings provide a lot of opportunities to catch jumbo perch and loose a lot of rigs. The Bay Bridge pilings present the opportunity to have some good sized striped "by catch" so you may want to upgrade your tackle to medium action rods for this.

[M_Duong60]

You've gotten some great advice.
Now for my 2 cents:

If I am fishing for fun, I stick with my home made spinner jigs and 3" curly tail grubs on 1/8 oz. jig heads. Chartreuse green is almost always the best color. I'll fish in the creeks and dock structure, very occasionally the Severn, if the weather is nice, and usually during the week to avoid traffic (I am fishing from a canoe, not a kayak). I have also fished in Baltimore Harbor for these, which is interesting, but I probably wouldn't take these home for dinner.

When we want to fill the cooler on the charter boat with perch we will use cut soft crab on a double snelled bottom rig. Worms may work as well, I don't know if bloodworms make that much difference.
We hit the Bay Bridge pilings, and when the weather gets snotty, we fish the Severn upstream from and across from Jonas Green, where the old railroad tracks and submerged old pilings provide a lot of opportunities to catch jumbo perch and loose a lot of rigs. The Bay Bridge pilings present the opportunity to have some good sized striped "by catch" so you may want to upgrade your tackle to medium action rods for this.

Hmm I quite like the idea of trying your advice with the Bay Bridge, I always drive over it but never really got around to getting out there. I wonder if going around the pilings there with a top and bottom rig with some bait would work well compared to jigs. So far all the advice has been really good and yeah taking fish home from the Baltimore Harbor sounds a little questionable haha. Thanks for specifying the size of jig head I want to be sure to have a lot of tackle ready by the time I decide to head out.

[mike o]

The Susquehanna is full of perch right now. I fished for shad on Wednesday and did ok but watched a man and women getting perch on every cast. Though most of them were very small.